Thursday, July 7th
alone
György Ligeti (1923-2006), Étude No. 13 (L’escalier du diable / The Devil’s Staircase); Pierre-Laurent Aimard (1957-, piano), 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill. (Oak Park Conservatory)
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: Pierre-Laurent Aimard
2020
Wednesday, December 2nd
alone
One-word review: Wow!
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (1957-, piano) plays Etudes by Debussy, Ligeti, Chopin, Bartok, Scriabin; live, England (Aldeburgh), 2014*
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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*Program (courtesy of YouTube): 0:00-, Debussy: Étude 1 pour les cinq doigts d’après Monsieur Czerny L. 136; 03:42-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 3: White on white (1995–2001); 07:56-, Debussy: Étude 9 pour les notes répétées L. 136; 11:16-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 2: Der Zauberlehrling (1988–1994); 13:40-, Debussy: Étude 3 pour les quartes L. 136; 18:57-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 2: Fém (1988–1994); 22:08-, Chopin: Trois nouvelles études: I. in F minor (1839); 24:29-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 2: En Suspens (1988–1994); 26:35-, Chopin: Trois nouvelles études: III. in A major (1839); 28:50-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 1: Arc-en-ciel (1985); 32:20-, Chopin: 12 etudes: II. in F minor (Op. 25); 34:03-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 1: Touches bloquées (1985); 36:14-, Bartók: 3 etudes: I. Allegro molto Sz. 72; 38:45-, Bartók: 3 etudes: II. Andante sostenuto Sz. 72; 42:17-, Bartók: 3 etudes: III. Rubato-Molto sostenuto Sz. 72; 44:25-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 2: Entrelacs (1988–1994); 47:20-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 1: Fanfares (1985); 50:56-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 1: Automne à Varsovie (1985); 55:39-, Scriabin: 3 etudes: I. Allegro fantastico Op. 65; 59:25-, Scriabin: 3 etudes: II. Allegretto Op. 65; 01:01:44-, Scriabin: 3 etudes: III. Molto vivace Op. 65; 01:03:30-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 2: Galamb Borong (1988–1994); 01:06:30, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 1: Cordes à vide (1985); 01:10:03-, Ligeti: Etudes: Book 2: L’escalier du diable (1988–1994).
2018
Monday, March 5th
tomorrow night in Chicago
He’ll be performing at the University of Chicago, playing Ligeti (including this) and Beethoven (Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major [Hammerklavier]).
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) playing György Ligeti (1923-2006), Étude No. 13: L’escalier du diable/The Devil’s Staircase, 2016
2011
Saturday, 1/29/11
replay: clips too good for just one day
I’ve tried listening to his recordings while doing something else, but that hasn’t worked. Whatever else I was doing, I just put aside. If it was nighttime, I turned off the light. Some music occupies every available inch of space—there isn’t room for anything else.
Alfred Cortot: Frederic Chopin, “Farewell” (Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 69, No. 1 [excerpt]); Robert Schumann, “Der Dichter Spricht” (Op. 15, No. 13 in G major [excerpt])
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Cortot looked for the opium in music.
—Daniel Barenboim
(Originally posted 7/13/10.)
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If you want to stay right where you are, don’t even bother with this clip. But if, instead, you’d like to go somewhere you may never have been before, well, this might be just the ticket.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006), Three Etudes, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
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I listen to all kinds of music—new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.
—Gyorgy Ligeti (whose influences included not only the usual suspects [Chopin, Debussy, et al.] but also Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans and the Rainforest Pygmies and fractal geometry)
(Originally posted 10/6/09.)
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Want a break from music that’s busy, busy, busy, busy, busy?
Try this.
Here, it seems, almost nothing happens at all.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Intermission 6 (1953)/Clint Davis, piano, live, Lexington, Kentucky, 2009
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To almost everyone’s surprise but his own, he [Morton Feldman] turned out to be one of the major composers of the twentieth century, a sovereign artist who opened up vast, quiet, agonizingly beautiful worlds of sound . . . . In the noisiest century in history, Feldman chose to be glacially slow and snowily soft.—Alex Ross
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Earlier in my life there seemed to be unlimited possibilities, but my mind was closed. Now, years later and with an open mind, possibilities no longer interest me. I seem content to be continually rearranging the same furniture in the same room.—Morton Feldman
(Originally posted 11/7/09.)
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mail, etc.
Congratulations on your 500th post. I don’t know how you do it but I’m definitely looking forward to receiving your next 500 posts. Thanks for exposing me to so many great artists. Keep the music coming and thanks for what you do.
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Lovely [Gulda/Mozart clip].
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The Sonny Rollins clip was amazing and amazing doesn’t do it justice!
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Oh, my goodness—and in such distinguished company as well! Thank you so much, Richard.
All best,
David [Kirby]
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Richard McLeese checked in with some nice memories about Son Seals. Click here to enjoy them yourself, including a couple of great videos.
2010
Saturday, 9/4/10
If you listened each day for the rest of your life to a new piece of music, how much music, at the end of your life, would remain unheard?
Claude Debussy, Two Etudes (Nos. 1 & 5)/Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, live
Want more of Pierre-Laurent Aimard? Here. Here.
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listening room
Last night I heard, for the first time, one of the most beautiful recordings of piano music I’ve ever encountered—a new recording of Morton Feldman’s For Bunita Marcus by Louis Goldstein, which can be heard, in its entirety, in the second half of an archived program of Alternating Currents, a weekly radio show out of Milwaukee. This performance lasts about 70 minutes. Coming out of it, I felt different than I did going in: lighter, clearer, awash in shimmering overtones.
2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
replay: a clip too good for just one day
If you want to stay right where you are, don’t even bother with this clip. But if, instead, you’d like to go somewhere you may never have been before, well, this might be just the ticket.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006), Three Etudes, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
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lagniappe
I listen to all kinds of music—new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.
—Gyorgy Ligeti (whose influences included not only the usual suspects [Chopin, Debussy, et al.] but also Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans and the Rainforest Pygmies and fractal geometry)
(Originally posted 10/6/09.)
2010
Saturday, 3/27/10
Here’s more from my favorite 101-year-old composer.
Elliott Carter, Two Diversions for Piano (2) (1999)/Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Want more Elliott Carter? Here. Here.
More Pierre-Laurent Aimard? Here.
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I used to write these gigantic pieces that were very complex and took a long time to compose, if not to play. I am now much more impatient and couldn’t stand working for so long on the same thing. But also those pieces were me working out certain ideas about music. Those ideas are now part of my life, so I don’t have to think about them in quite the same way. But some things never change, in that you are still glad to finish a piece and still wonder whether it is as good as you hoped it might be when you started out.
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The Two Diversions were an idea of Ursula Oppens. Oppens decided that Carnegie Hall should commission composers to write what they considered easy pieces, and to make an album for piano students, and so I wrote two pieces for this album. I don’t think they’re as easy as they’d hoped, but there are some people with even harder ones.
2009
Tuesday, 10/6/09
If you want to stay right where you are, don’t even bother with this clip. But if, instead, you’d like to go somewhere you may never have been before, well, this might be just the ticket.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006), Three Etudes, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
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lagniappe
I listen to all kinds of music—new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.—Gyorgy Ligeti (whose influences included not only the usual suspects [Chopin, Debussy, et al.] but also Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans and the Rainforest Pygmies and fractal geometry)
music clip of the day 